1740  Churchway, or Turnbrook, begun.

NRO BUD/32
c1833?  Churchway Colliery
Is gailed by Messrs. Bennet & Pts. call the Churchway Company
Is drained by a Steam Engine to the High Delf Vein, at the depth of 112 yards from the surface.  The Rocky Coal has also been worked in this Pit.
The Rocky Coal is 2 and the High Delf four-and-a-half feet thick.
The North Level joins “Strip and at it” at about a mile distance - to the South the workings are limited by the Nofold Gale.
Have 100 yards of Breadth to the Churchway old workings.
The Seam pitches about 9 inches per yard in the North Level and only 4 or 5 in the South Level.
The Engine works a 15 inch pump and has 9 hours a day going in Summer, and constant going in Winter.
Mr. Protheroe’s Bilston (sic) Engine Level runs about 100 yards below the Churchway Engine Level.
These Levels run nearly parallel to the road between Coleford, and Mitchel Dean.
The North, and South Level, each extend about 300 yards from the Pit.
The Coals are sent by the Railway to Bishop’s Wood, and also are sold to the Country.
I was informede that Mr. Protheroe’s workings, had through a mistake in the dialing, holed into the Churchway Engine Level, but that the aperture had been secured by a dam.

1835 p 150 “Dreadful Accidents.  Lately as John and Thomas Meek, (father and son), were descending the shaft into the coal-pit at Churchway, in the Forest of Dean, unfortunately some part of the machinery gave way, and melancholy to relate, the poor fells were precipitated to the bottom, and killed on the spot.  There remains were found in an awfully mutilated state.  Dec 26, 1835”.

1841  Thomas Bennett and James Bennett as to 13 equal undivided 20th shares, in equal moieties;  Thomas Gardiner, of the city of Gloucester (as to one equal undivided moiety of 3 other equal undivided 20th shares); and John and Letitia Bennett, of The Morse, Ruardean (as to the other moiety of the said 3 shares in equal moieties);  William Dew, as assignee of John Court, (a bankrupt), as to 2 equal undivided 20th shares;  Giles Griffiths, of Ruardean Woodside, as to one equal undivided 20th part or share; and Thomas Court, of Herbert’s Lodge, as to one equal undivided 20th part (as claiming through or under Free Miners) to Independent or Churchway.
Since the passing of the 1838 Act Thomas Bennett and James Bennett have purchased the several shares and interests of Thomas Gardiner and John and Letitia Bennett, Giles Griffiths and Thomas Court and have become sole owners.
Churchway Colliery included Nofold Land and Deep Pits, and Protection Gales.
All that tract of coal in the Churchway High Delf.

F3 286
T. Bennett  Outputs
 1841   2,299 tons
 1842   6,522
 1843 10,534
 1844 11,940
 1845 12,756
 1846   7,878

12 January 1850 Gloucester Journal  Inquest at Ruardean on James Davis, aged 10 years, who had been employed at the Churchway Pit throwing lime coal under the boiler of the winding engine.  On that morning, a man, hearing a boy cry out, looked towards the engine and saw the flywheel come round with the boy clinging to one of its arms; he pulled the boy off, but he was very badly wounded in the head, the hair being scrubbed off, and his thighs were very much ripped.  The boy died a few minutes afterwards.  It is supposed that the boy must have accidently slipped between the arms of the wheel while going across the top of a partition.
Verdict: Accidental Death

September 1861 Arrears of dead rent on Churchway No. 2 to Thos. & Cornelius Brain.

27 May 1865  Sale by Auction.  Drybrook I.M.; Penswell I.M.; Symonds Rock I.M.; Full Moon Colliery; Twenty Inches Colliery; Setting Sun Colliery; New Mill Engine Colliery; Churchway No. 2 Colliery; Roberts Folly Colliery; Regulator No. 4 Colliery; Tormentor or Teazall Colliery (Peter Constance had part); True Blue Colliery; New Leather Pit Colliery; Ditch Pit Colliery.

F3 185, 255 & 491
4 January 1881  Churchway and Nelson gales now belong to the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Gales practically of no value except as pumping stations.
See Crump Meadow Colliery below.

1881  Insole & Bunning
Cornish Beam Condensing 40" diameter cylinder, 7ft stroke, 7ft in pit, 60 years old.
1 forcing     60}                              141/2"
1 bucket       52}  112 yards           141/2"
8 strokes per minute  392 gallons

2 egg-ended boilers  1 24' x 8',  1 19' x 5',  13lbs.

March 1841  Churchway Pit  Mr James Bennett.  Working the Churchway vein.
Raised by 20" cylinder atmospheric and a 36" double condensing winding.
Depth of pits  112 yards
How disposed of: Lydbrook, country sale and Bullo Pill
Daily quantity raised 22 tons quarter lime coal
At 300 days annually 6,600 tons
Buildings Two Engine houses
Observations:  Coal sells at pits mouth at 9d. per ton.

14 August 1882  T. Bennett Brain and W. Blanch Brain still held part of Churchway.

8 November 1884  Wishing to work the barriers with Bilson in the Churchway High Delf.

1885  Outputs: to June 30 1,445 tons; to December 31 637 tons:  Total 2,082 tons.

30 September 1889  Coal in the Starkey to be won by the Lydney & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. through the Duck Pit on Bilson gale as the coal is separated from the rest of Churchway by a fault.

1 January 1892  Bilson & Crump Meadow Co. met with some serious loss, one of their best horses shunting at Churchway Colliery - caught between buffers.

10 August 1896  Lydney & Crump Meadow removing boilers and engine from Churchway, coal brought to the surface through Crump Meadow.

15 October 1896  Wishing to remove chimney stacks from Churchway and Winning Pits.  Churchway engine house made into rooms.

CHURCHWAY No.2
10 July 1911  Trafalgar Colliery to work coal?

26 November 1911  Lydney & Crump Meadow to purchase.

26 December 1913  Coal practically exhausted.

1 January 1914  Dead rent reduced from £30 to £10 as gale just held to check water.

4 August 1920  To be surrendered.  All coal exhausted.